Identification Truths Plus 2012
Courtney Hemenway · Feb 26, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492634145545

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We left off last week, I believe that we left off somewhere around question 12, which was Romans 6.11 in Reckoning. And this right here is probably one of the more difficult doctrines for me to wrap my head around on a personal level. I'm going to assume that all of you are way better off than I am in your faculties and abilities to take this doctrine and just wrap your mind around it. It's important that when we talk about position, reckoning is fundamentally tying together our position and our condition. Recognizing what is true.

So let's read Romans 6.11 before we dig into this too far. I'm just running my mouth.

So, Romans 6.11 Paul writes, Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So we have the word consider here, but in King James it's reckon. I don't know, maybe a few other translations use the word reckon there. So consider yourselves to be dead to sin. What does it mean to consider yourself to be dead to sin? Accounting is so? Yeah. That's a good straightforward answer. That's an accounting term if I understand correctly.

In the Greek Paul is very emphatic. Apparently the Greek with all of the nuances of it says you yourself consider yourself to be dead. He's not messing around. Hey, consider yourself to be dead. Consider yourself to be dead. So reckoning, the way I have here, is reckoning is the willful act of the believer who takes by faith that they were identified with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and they are appropriating God's revealed positional truths. Which is really wordy, I apologize. But you're making the decision to consider yourself dead because positionally that's true. Now the reason I had a hard time grasping this was because my experience was that I kept sinning and screwing up.

And so I thought, Paul must be writing about somebody else. Maybe there were some really super awesome believers in Rome, and he was writing to them, and this just didn't apply to me. You ever run into that, where you read Paul and you think, how on earth?

No, right? Well, fortunately, we're going to go all the way from 5 through 8, or halfway through 5 through 8 in this class. So you'll get to chew through this with us. But reckoning is a really important truth because it is your position being appropriated in your condition. And I think that word appropriation is important. How many of you use that word appropriation a lot? The truth of the matter is that for a lot of people we don't think about appropriation. In seminary when we talked about Bible interpretation we did observe, interpret, apply. But I think that there's actually an important element that's in the application step is actually appropriation. Because sometimes the application isn't for you. Judas went out and hung himself. The application is probably not for you. But the thing is that there's no application there. There's no appropriation there. But there are places where the application is technical. My position is there.

There's that technical thing, but the appropriation of it is the day-to-day implementation, the truth that's there. So Paul tells us to reckon, and we do that by faith, at least that was the definition I just gave for appropriation. Scripture in regards to reckoning that we put our faith in. There's two parts of this. And this was on your homework, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the answers were easy or obvious. I have the answers, so that puts me in a slightly better position. I would say knowing is part of it.

And actually Romans 6.6, so if you'll move ahead and if you're there in your Bible, somebody go ahead and read Romans 6.6 out loud. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. So knowing, as Mike pointed out there, and then Paul uses that knowing that, that our old self is crucified with him. That's a lot to reckon by itself. a lot to consider.

Especially when what is your old man constantly, as Courtney's illustration with the man lashed, the captain lashed the boat fast. He's already been condemned. He's still calling out orders. You have to recognize, you have to reckon, that he's been condemned and judged and he has no authority.

So the old man, knowing that our old man was crucified, And then the second part is Colossians 3.10 Colossians 3.10 And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. So you're reckoning the first part, that the old man was crucified with Christ, and what's the second part? What is he telling you to do in 3.10? You're putting on the new self. So you're reckoning the old self is dead and the new self is alive and that you can walk in that new self. So your position and your condition are in alignment. So those are the two primary facts. Mike?

A really, really recent revelation to me was the fact that crucifixion doesn't mean that you're dead. When the Romans crucified somebody, they hung up on that cross for days. So my old man I've been separated from him because I died, but he is crucified. That doesn't mean he stopped talking and that he hasn't checked out yet. We kind of look at the crucifixion of Christ because in six hours he gives up his own spirit. But crucifixion usually was sometimes a week.

A guy would stay up there and slowly starve to death. Well I think that that person up there is not just, it takes him a long time, it's that he's fighting to stay alive. It's not just, I'm being killed and it's taking a long time. That person up there is fighting to stay alive. And that's apparent in my life, my thin nature. Fights to stay alive. I never like talking about the technicality of crucifixion. It's always nice when it's like, that's nice in a very broad way.

Continuing on here reading, I have here, read 2 Corinthians 3.18 and what does it mean to hold the Lord?

Does that relate to Colossians 3.1-3?

Go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians 3.18. I keep going to Bible verses and saying that's my favorite Bible verse, but this is one of my favorite Bible verses. Do you have a handout that I can... Uh-huh.

So 2 Corinthians 3.18. There's 6 and 7. And there's 8 for this morning.

So if you're there, simply go ahead and read out loud 2 Corinthians 3.18.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Okay, so I had to ask Mike this question, actually, one Wednesday night. And he kept talking about this beholding principle, and I said, I don't understand. So, here it is on the piece of paper.

What does it mean to behold the Lord? Maybe you guys are much sharper than I am. Probably you are. What does it mean to behold the Lord? I know a different translation, and it's like reflecting as in the mirror the glory of the Lord. And so I always think it as like, if you identify yourself as Christ, you look in that mirror, you're not supposed to see an old man, you're supposed to see Christ. So you're reflecting that same image. But what does it mean to behold the Lord?

You answered the second half of the verse. It's okay. I had to chew through it. Go ahead, Gordon. I had to look at the study. The best way I can ever think to illustrate this in human terms is when I was standing on the stage in front of hundreds of people with my bride, Jessica. looking at her face during our wedding ceremony. And I was beholding my bride. She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And it was amazing that we were in this ceremony. And it was gorgeous. And it was amazing. And my grandpa kept distracting us. Why are... Stop talking! This is my wife! You know, he's trying to do the ceremony.

But beholding is that same principle where you're looking at the Lord And I ask the question, does that relate to Colossians 3, 1, 2, 3? What does Paul tell us to do in Colossians 3, 1, 2, 3? Turn there and recite it. Since you'll be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. For Christ sits at the right hand of God. Beholding the Lord or setting your mind on heavenly things. And that's a principle that for me, I keep finding, using the word appropriation again, I keep finding appropriations for this principle. in my life.

Yesterday with the kids in the last hour we took them in and showed them videos, right? A VeggieTale video. Three of the kids obviously have seen this video before because when the music started they started singing. They were so into it that they identified themselves with whoever the character was on the screen.

That's beholding. It's a connection. It's that relationship with a visual element to it. And obviously, since we don't get to see the Lord in a face-to-face scenario, Paul writes it in a mirror dimly concept is we can look at the Word and God reveals His Son to us.

And we can know Him and we can have that relationship. Now it is like a mirror dimly, but we'll be joined to Him. And that's why I get excited about Colossians 3 verse 4. Because Paul says, hey, when Christ is revealed, you're going to be revealed with him, in person. And it's not just going to be the theoretical mirrored dimly.

We'll have been raptured up. And he's going to reveal himself to the whole world, the universe. And we need to be there with him. So that's actually all the questions I had from last week. But the position and condition principle is, our condition is what we're experiencing now, but it is not forever going to be separated from our position. When we get to eternity, it will be unified. That's an exciting thing. That's why we have hope. That's an important thing.

Any other thoughts or questions? One other thought. You were talking about the reflection of the word to me, and I also agree that it's both. There's the reflection in me from me to the world. It's not something I'm necessarily aware of. But as I'm conformed, and the image of Christ is reflected in me, I become a mirror to others.

Yeah. And Paul makes that assertion earlier in the passage when he talks about Moses. He saw the Lord, and the glory of the Lord was radiating, and he put a veil on to help people not freak out. So, that's cool. Alright, now Courtney gets to actually start his lesson for the day. Alright, so you have, you should have in front of you Lesson 8, is that correct? We're now moving on a little bit.

We've gone over the identification. Hopefully you know by now the identification with Adam and what that means. Is there anything good about our identification with Adam? No, Romans 3, all those good things where you find out who you are in Adam. No, they're horrible, nothing good about Adam. So, it was a good thing, as we've just discussed, about crucifying, placing Adam onto the cross and crucifying him, and then we just talked about being placed into Christ, that our identification now is with Christ.

And is that a good thing? Absolutely. And so we've got to understand those principles because as we go on, if you don't understand those, it's going to be very hard in the identification, understanding that. But not only that, when we get into grace and some of the other topics that we get into, it's extremely hard. In fact, I don't think you can truly understand grace or the principle of grace until you have these identification truths down.

Because if you don't, grace is negated by the old man all the time. Because the old man wants to do something. The only thing he can, he's on the cross, but he's still shouting those commands. And he always wants you to do something. And as we get into grace, grace will be the unmerited, unmerited, means nothing we can do, and unlimited blessings from God based on the completed work of Christ on the cross. So, unless you know this identification, you're never going to understand grace.

So, we're going to look at an intimate passage where we see in John 17, and this is one of my favorite passages. I loved this when we taught the Gospel of John. This is the real Lord's Prayer, and if you haven't read it, I decided that I was going to read the chapter, because a lot of times we focus so much on individual verses and we do this, we don't see the forest through the tree, so to speak, So I'm going to go first off and just read John 17.

It's just an intimate look of the Lord having basically time with God the Father and what he's saying. And what's all involved in there is just amazing when you see what it relates to us. And remember, this is when he's talking about this and the intimacy that he has with the Father, where are we placed right now? In Christ. So when he's talking to the Father and he's saying all these wonderful things, we've got to start figuring out that we're in him, his life, we have that same intimacy with the Father now. And he says that in here. And it's just beautiful.

So as you start realizing that, you understand what your position is, it should hopefully start moving you in the conditional part of getting you towards your position as you fully understand who you are in Christ. Because this is just an intimate passage. So I'll read it through just so we get the whole context, everything in it. And just kind of, instead of dissect it verse by verse, I'd like to see kind of as a whole what he was going through, what he's saying in this whole passage. So if you want, follow along. I'm reading New American Standard. And again, for those on tape, it's Lesson 8 now on the Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him he may give eternal life. Incredible right there. This is eternal life. This is eternal life. That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I have glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world.

They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words which you gave me I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you, and they believe that you sent me. I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world. I come to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me. And I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scripture would be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. For their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in the truth. The lynchpin. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given to me, I have given to them. that they may be one, just as we are one, I am them, and you are me, that they may be perfected in unity, so the world may know that you sent me and love them, even as you love me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you love me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known you, yet I have known you, and these have known that you sent me.

And I have made your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love which you love me may be in them, and I in them." Man, I don't know about you, but you're reading that, I in them, just the unity, and just I in them, you in me, the Father, all the intimacy that was shared with the Father He's now saying we have that same intimacy. He wants that. He wants to share His glory. He wants to share everything. We're I and Him, me and Him. And He's saying this intimacy between the Father, but He places us right there.

And that's why with the identification, if you're identified with Him, placed in Him, read this, and this is you. That same intimacy you now have with the Father. You have the intimacy with the Lord. When you read this, it just blows my mind away. If you know the identification, you've been placed in Him, think of the intimacy.

You could be saying the same thing. If that doesn't start changing you and start you thinking where you are positionally right now, not later, not when we step into glory. Right now, positionally, this is you. That's why the identification means so much. When you start understanding who you are in Christ and where you're placed right now, that has an impact on your condition, how you walk is.

Because that's who you are. Man, share the glory? What does that mean? Just grab that one for an afternoon. And the intimacy between the Father and the Son, he says, I want that for them. What was the intimacy between the Father and the Son? For all eternity. And he's saying he wants that for you.

So, John 17 is just an incredible one, and when we get into identification, what it means, and this is just kind of a quick look at who, when you're placed into Him, through our identification into Christ, what this means. So, I had a whole bunch in 17, and I'm going to do a couple of the questions that weren't on there that I had. I went back and I started looking when we were teaching the Gospel of John, and there are just some, I think, some powerful things. Some interesting things, from verse 13.

Who was coming to whom in this verse, if you look at verse 13. Who was coming to who? Stunned silence. It wasn't on the question. You guys probably didn't know the question, did you? Who's coming to who? Christ was coming to God. Right. The Son was coming to the Father, and as in verse 11, Jesus states that He comes to the Father. Where was He coming from? From the earth. From the earth. He was in the world. Again, for verse 11, Jesus says he is no longer in the world, but he comes to the Father.

Realize the intimacy of this. Jesus has stepped out of glory and taken on human form away from the intimacy that he enjoyed with the Father since eternity past. He'd been away for over 33 years now, and in a few short hours, he would complete the work that the Father had given him, and he would soon return to be at his side. Honey, how would you describe If the Lord Jesus is on the earth and he's a man now, it seems like the intimacy between the two of them never went away.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Physically, he's not in the presence. Physically, because now he has a body and he's a man, do you think the intimacy was diminished in any way? It's just different, I think. I think it's different. Because he stepped out. What happened on the cross? you know, when the father turned away from him. Had that ever happened, ever. Never. And so there's a different relationship, you know, he's now stepped in, he's fully man, fully God.

The reason I ask the question is that since the concept of John 17 is true, then I as a believer, At what degree of intimacy am I allowed with the Father if it's the same as Christ? And so is it to the intensity that it was before he became a man? Is it different now that he's a man? And if I'm in him, now he's back in glory and I'm in him there.

So the intimacy allowed to me or asked to be given me can't be any less than what the Father and the Son have always had. Right. And actually that kind of gets into what my next question is. What did Jesus represent when he said, now I come to you? What was different about that now? He's a man. He's a man. He represented himself as the firstborn of a new creation. Not glorified yet.

He now would come to the Father as fully head of a new race of people, not now as an individual, but the representative head of his redeemed family. It's a different position now. And that's why I say I take the intimacy there, but it's now, I think, even more intense. Because he's now the firstborn of the new creation. And remember, this is before he went to the cross. It speaks that he was looking beyond that to completing the work of his father. He was not thinking of himself, but of his people.

Well, it just seems, and what Mike has said is that the position between the father and the son was always the same, but even with the son and the father, those conditions were different because before he came, there was this, I know I've got to go, and then he's here, he's like, okay, I'm here now, which is a different condition. and I'm anticipating what's coming, and then the condition changes again, now I'm dying and I'm taking on this, so he's able to, because we can, our identification is there because he also was able to identify with who we are. Here are these different conditions of the sun, just like there's different conditions in our own life. We've talked about that.

Why wasn't it acceptable to have a bull or whatever sacrifice? Why did it have to be a man? Because of the identity. We had to be taken out of our flesh, our man. It had to be a man. So it had to be a man, not a bull, not an elephant, not a whatever.

I look at this and I don't know if it's a changed relationship, but it's now fully man and fully God. He's now the head of the people. He's got this intimacy and he fulfilled the eternal covenant that was to pay for the sins. Is there even an elevated relationship now? because he's completed the work that his father had from eternity past. So I don't even know if there can be a higher level now because he's done what he's, for all eternity, was set up. And so I don't know. Like I said, we could spend months on this. It's just the intimacy.

And when you start realizing, put yourself in this passage, So, in verse 13, what does it mean when Jesus said, so that they may have my joy, and this is maybe what we're kind of touching on, made full in themselves. It says, but now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

When he says, my joy, what joy did Jesus have? Wasn't he just about ready to go to the cross, pay for all the sins of the world, past, present, future laid on him? His father would have to turn his back on him to pay for those. What joy was set before him? Us. They can't see. Us. Sorry. They can't see.

The joy he speaks of looks past the cross. What would he receive after the cross? That he had again completed the work the Father had for him, he would be glorified, he'd return to the Father, and he'd have intimate fellowship with the Father and with all those who the Father had given to him. That's the joy. He looked past the cross and said, what do I get?

I get a return to you, Father. I get to have that intimacy again. And guess what? He gets intimacy with all of us. That's the joy he's talking about that's made in him. So what is significant about the fact that Jesus said it is my joy? Like you, I have the answer. I can get this in a heartbeat. The joy set before me endured the cross.

He was to purchase it through His blood, and it was His to give to us. The things, the dismack of grace and the phrase that I think of many times, that He didn't have to do this, but He did. Remember, we've talked about this before. He paid for the sins. Done. But did He have to place us into Him and do all that? No. No. The joy was, He's paying for all the sin, and what? He gets all of us with it.

I think it goes all the way back to the very first class when we talked about, we were created in the image and likeness of God, that God's intent was to have human beings who could communicate with him, appreciate him, be loved by him and respond in kind. And that was always his great joy, that he wanted to share his glory. And now, with this you know, you find out that God's purpose never has changed, and actually has been elevated now to a point where the intimacy and the sharing of life is on a greater plane than it ever was, would have been without Him. We've talked about this many times.

I remember one of the first times when I started coming here, and I was going to the Tuesday Bible Study, and it finally, with identification, made sense to me about in Genesis. where God walked in the cool of the morning with Adam. He was having this intimate fellowship with him. Intimate walking in the cool of the morning garden. Here's Eden. Here's this beautiful place he created. He's side by side having fellowship with him. And I could never reconcile the fact that he said it was not good for man to be alone. Huh? I'm walking with God in the garden. How does that not work. What do you mean I'm not alone? I mean it's not good to be alone. I could never reconcile that.

But when you realize what he had planned for maternity, it ended up that, and when we were talking to Mike, he was like, suddenly, when it was the creator and the creation, It's like a relationship with your dog. Oh, I love my dog. I have a great time with him. That's a whole other thing we can discuss afterwards. There's a little hitch in that one. I have this relationship. Look, he's great. We have a great relationship. It's so much fun to have a dog.

But it's not on the same level. You know, that's the deal. When it was Adam, it was a man, but it was at a different level. God and man. They could have a relationship, but not on a level. What happened in identification, we were placed into Christ. Now, we have an intimate relationship. We're like humans, back and forth. We're of one race.

We now have a level of intimacy that we never could have had in Adam. And that's when you understand the identification, how important that is and what that means to us. We can now have that relationship that I think he wanted from eternity past, but he could never have with Adam.

He now has with us when we're identified in Christ. It's a one-on-one relationship. Then you understand how it wasn't good for him to be alone because he was down here. Now it makes sense to me. He needed to place us into Christ so we could have that intimate relation. Think what that means. That now you have this intimacy on a one-to-one or equal level, minus deity. You're on a level that has intimacy with the God of the universe. What a jump in class.

Christ doesn't expect us to go before the Father with fear. No. And that's a big deal. in my legalistic understandings of things, I was always afraid of the idea of actually being presented with a relationship with God in anything that was deeper than a technicality because of the fear that my sins would be a disgrace and God couldn't handle that. I didn't understand justification at that point either. But instead he talks about a joyful relationship with Father That's pretty awesome.

There's one from The Hungry Heart that will kind of touch on that, that I'll close with today. Yesterday's, I think. What does it mean to have His joy made full in us? His joy made full in us. What does that mean? Knock your socks off. His joy made full in us. I think the best thing is, I looked at 1 Peter 1, 3-9, I'll read it. It's kind of the best I can kind of make to what that means.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance so our inheritances were in him, which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through the faith, for as salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, in this you greatly rejoice. Even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you did not see him, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible. and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." Again, I think it's that he greatly rejoiced, knowing all this, what he just talked about, greatly rejoiced with joy inexpressible. That's what he wants to put in you, that joy that is made full. I have a couple other ones. what we have in him, you know, all the 34 things, we have peace, we have rest, we have all these different things, and this is what he wants. for us.

And if you just read that John 17 every so often, if you want to just recharge your batteries and think what you have positionally, it's just incredible. Okay, now let's get on to the actual questions. In verse, I couldn't resist myself. I started studying this and I just love John 17. It's just one of my favorite passages just because what it says when you take it all in, And what it means from this class is identification. Once you understand, the old man, crucified, taken away, pulled out of the flesh, the identification with Adam, and now placed into Christ, you start reading that John 17.

Put your name in there. It's incredible. Question 1. In verses 6-26, especially verse 20, who are the objects of the Lord's prayer? We are. We are. This is the linchpin, the link that all this stuff he's talking about, all this intimacy, all these different things, this is where it says, this is for you. You who believe. You who have been placed in the Christ.

All this great stuff I've been talking about, the glory I want to share, the joy, all these beautiful things, this is where he links it. I do not ask, in verse 20, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word.

So this, again, is just where we get placed into that, where we get all this intimacy. All the things he talks about, this is where it links us. He's talking to the disciples, but then it's, this is where he links us into it. All from you disciples and on your word, all who believe from your word, now get this association, or this link. What are you going to say?

Okay, in verse 14, why does the world hate these people? says, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Why does he hate them? They're not of the world. What? They're not of the world. Not of the world. Okay. Let's begin first by looking at the first. I have given them your word. Okay? What is his word, and what did Jesus say about his word in this prayer? What did he say about his word? Your word is truth. Jesus starts off by saying to the Father to sanctify or set us apart in the truth.

How does the world receive truth? They reject it. They reject it. It's not good. Therefore we are immediately set apart from the sinful or the fallen world because of the truth that's in us. Because the Word is put in us. The Word is truth. Secondly, Jesus states, and by verse 20, we're not of this world. This relates exactly to what we've been talking about in identification. We're not of this world. Where is our position right now?

In Christ. And where's Christ? Sitting beside the Father. Right hand of the Father. So, wait a minute. I'm standing here today. How does that reconcile? Who's identified as being in the world? Who's in the world? We are. Or who is the world? Who are they identified with? Satan or Adam. There's Adam and by his sin. So what about us in Christ? Where are we positionally now? in the heavenlies.

If you look at the, and this is one I think of a lot, when I, as you know, I like politics. It's fun. You're so worldly. No, no. I qualify this by the fact that I say, you know, and I mean this, it's like cheering for a Bronco game. I get excited, it's so tebow time. Get excited about it. Watch the Avalanche. Watch the Avalanche beat Detroit last night. Yes! I get excited about that. But it means nothing. It means absolutely nothing. Politics is the same thing. It's like on the sidelines cheering for a game. In the end, it means nothing. Nothing. Where is my citizenship?

Philippians 3.20, for our citizenship, ours, is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's kind of interesting, the is in, you know, is, sounds like Bill Clinton, save politics. What does is mean? I just can't escape it, it's funny. You know, it's a football game. Is, the is in Greek, for our citizenship, is in heaven. Katie is, in the Greek, is present, active, indicative. What does that mean? It means right now. Right now. Present. Right now. It's not later.

Positionally, right? And that's the understanding of what Randy was talking about. So you have to understand what position and condition are. Positionally, when is it? When is our citizenship? Right now. It's not when we step into eternity. Our position right now is in Christ, in the heavenlies. It's active and indicative. Indicative is a fact. It's a fact. Not to be conditional, nothing, it's a fact. So we are, in fact, positionally put it in the heavenlies, our citizenship's in heaven. So if I get excited about politics, Do we have elections in heaven? Do we have endless negative ads in heaven for positions? Do we have anything related to that? No. So it's cheering for the football game. In the end, it means nothing. OK? All right. Let's see. I'll do this next one, and then I want to read from The Hungry Heart, just kind of a thing. Question 3.

Explain in what sense did Christ sanctify himself in verse 19? Remember, sanctification means set apart. So it says in verse 19, for their sake I sanctify myself that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. So, explain in what sense did Christ sanctify himself? How did he set himself apart? As he said, for their sake I sanctify myself.

Yep. Others? He set himself apart to be the covenant of all our sins. Yep. Good answer. I mean he set himself apart. He says for their sake I sanctify myself or set myself apart. I think he set himself apart from all that he was as the second person of the Trinity to identify himself with man so that when the fulfillment of the eternal covenant came Everything was set apart. He stepped out of eternity. He put on man.

He did in his love, in covenant with the Father and the Holy Spirit, absolutely and voluntarily dedicated and set apart his whole person, his inheritance, his offices, his very life itself, to be their everlasting portion and supply for his people's need, their spiritual need and their temporal need, to be their divine and inexhaustible dowry for time and eternity. He put everything apart.

For what? For us? They really should have the definition of love. There is no greater love than what Christ did for us. He gave up everything, put on man. For what? So we could have this intimacy with us. Start contemplating that. That's how much He loved us. And does that ever change? We have many verses that say, can we ever be separated from His love? Nope. This great love He has is all on, full on, all the time.

That's what He wants. He wants that intimacy. You're the one who is hands-off, turning your back, turning back to the flesh, that old comfortable flesh, and want to do something. All you do under grace is receive. That's the intimacy He wants with you. Unconditional, pour out His blessings to you. That's what He wants. Does this mean that Jesus was only a man during His time on earth? Because He gave up all this stuff. I said he gave up his inheritance, his offices, all that stuff. Was he just a man? No, he was deity.

And where do we get that from? Does anybody know? Colossians 2.9.

Colossians 2.9. 1. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So for those people, and I think there was a guy that Nick knew that was saying it was just a man or he wasn't deity. He wasn't fully man and fully God. Yeah.

So, when you read Colossians 2.9, how do you get around that? For in him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. God and man. Fully God, fully man.

That doctrine, the hypostatic union, you can look at every cult and every screwed up group. It defines how much of the deity Christ was in different ways. I've chosen witnesses to do the Mormons do, and a bunch of different other various organizations. You can look at that doctrine.

It's a really key doctrine to understand the fullness of who Christ was as God or man. Yeah, you know, there's no question. Fully God, fully man. That verse, and then also you look at Colossians 119, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.

I want to get to this right just because I thought before it dealt with the identification. The bell is going to ring here in a minute. It was reading The Hungry Heart and I thought this applied to our identification and some of the things. I think it was yesterday's Hungry Heart. I just thought it was good for how we struggle with identification and all these different things. And I thought it was good very quickly.

If we look to other Christians as examples to follow, we will soon be discouraged by the prevailing low standard. I like this part. If we look to Christ as our example, we will be utterly discouraged because of his infinitely high standard. That's what we look at. We look at a Christian, but then we look at Christ.

How do I attain that? That's impossible. Hence, it is essential that we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is our life. He is not a legal example to emulate, but the source of life from which we grow. I thought that was key. That's how we get it. He's our very life. We're looking at this huge attainment. Well, that's who we are. He's our very life.

It is not in any conventional standard of frames and feelings that the disciple is to find the measure of attainment required of him. It is not by any painful reproducing of another's spiritual history that he is to acquire the true comfort of spirit which he longs for." How many times, oh, he's a great Christian. I want to emulate him. Okay.

Outward imitation, though it be of the perfect, and this is, I thought, really good. Outward imitation, though it be of the perfect example of him, has little place or order that has little place in the order of spiritual growth, little place because little possibility. Without me, i.e. apart from me and separation from me, ye can do nothing. To abide in Christ is the only secret of Christ's likeness, for only thus is obtained the likeness of unity, which is perfect and enduring, instead of the likeness of conformity, which is only partial and transient."

Do you understand that you're trying to conform? I'm trying to be like I'm going to try. Who's doing that? The old man. It's from the life of Christ in you that you are conformed. You don't try to obtain it. You realize the very life is in you. That's how you're conformed because you know, you study who he is so you know who you are. That's how you're conformed.

In the pathway of discipline and trial, we learn by bitter experience the truth of Paul's confession, in me, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Coupled with that is the lesson that God waits with infinite patience, like the potter, to work out a design and beauty with such frail material. I just thought that was great, from our identification. You know, we try and conform.

No. You are placed in Him. You're a new creation in Christ. New and kind. Who lives in me now? Christ. That's how we're going. We look at Christ and we study Him because that's who we are. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time again. We thank you just for this chapter that you've given to us. It just sheds the light on the intimacy that you have, Father, with the Son, the Lord Jesus, and incredibly with us. We thank you for that. We thank you for what this represents, that we have that intimacy with you now. We have that right now, not later, not at any time. We have that intimacy right now positionally with you. We are placed in Christ. Our very life is Christ. So we have that intimacy with you, Father, through Christ. That is unimaginable. It is so neat. We believe it. We understand that.

That's where you have, that's what you wanted for us. And we thank you for that. And it's not on anything that we've done. It's all in the work of Christ and what he did on the cross to place us in him, to separate us from our old nature in Adam. To be placed in Christ, who is our very life right now. Father, we thank you. We praise you and give you thanks for all that you've done. And we do this all in Jesus' name. Amen.